With title in place - 'The Fifth Estate" - filming is underway on the Hollywood WikiLeaks movie that aims to chronicle the early days of Julian Assange and his controversial website.

FRANK CONNOR/DREAMWORKS -  Filming has begun on a movie drama about Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks website that promises to trace the early days of WikiLeaks through the eyes of Assange and his German former spokesman, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (played by Daniel Brühl), culminating in the release in 2010 of a series of thousands of damaging government documents and e-mails.

Hollywood movie studio DreamWorks said on Wednesday (January 23) that "The Fifth Estate," starring British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange, will open in U.S. movie theaters in November 2013.

The movie screenplay is based on Domscheit-Berg's 2011 book "Inside WikiLeaks," written after the disillusioned German activist quit the organization, and a second book, "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy," by journalists David Leigh andLuke Harding.

Assange, who grew up in Australia, was also profiled in the 2012 Australian TV film "Underground.

The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven months to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning on allegations of sexual assault.

Assange has said he fears extradition will ultimately lead to him being sent to the United States, which is furious that WikiLeaks has leaked hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables.